Last week’s extraordinary Waitaki District Council meeting was expected to formally rubber-stamp an audited rates rise of 9.44%, slightly lower than the 9.79% councillors agreed to just last month.
But Cr Tim Blackler pointed out it could bring "pain" to the region if the government was to introduce a rates cap and benchmark this year’s rate rise because the LTP does not include depreciation of water assets.
"The issue is we’ve got the potential for rates-capping and we as an organisation, over successive years, have opted for unfunded depreciation on certain aspects of our organisation.
"That could be an issue should we be benchmarked against this year. We haven’t had a chance to make the conscious decision to adjust for that or not.
"We may find ourselves in a position of difficulty."
Waitaki District Mayor Gary Kircher acknowledged the "angst" central government was causing in local government circles.
"Whilst we are obviously scanning the political horizon as to what may be coming, we can only really respond to what we know in terms of the rates cap and we know the government is looking at this, we know that things have been said about this, but there isn’t a formal proposal that we can really respond to at this stage.
"We don’t know all the answers and that’s pretty much the nature of business.
"And councils these days, legislation is changing almost by the day.
"I think there’s been a lot of angst around a lot of those aspect issues.
"We’re trying to make the best decisions we can with the information we’ve got, knowing that it won’t be perfect but it will be better than not having a long-term plan at all."
A letter to Waimate District Council was included in its recent meeting agenda, in which LGNZ confirmed a paper on rates capping would be considered at the organisation’s annual meeting on July 16.
"All rates capping policies effectively transfer local fiscal decisions from local communities to central government politicians or bureaucracies," the letter said.
"If we don’t strengthen our advocacy, the government is likely to implement rates capping.
"The government is likely to introduce legislation next year.
"However, it is still politically possible to prevent rates capping."
The same letter has not been made publicly available by the Waitaki District Council.
A council spokesperson confirmed the LGNZ letter "has been seen by the mayor and councillors", but there had not been any workshops about it or briefing on it from LGNZ.
"Council is awaiting the government’s policy."
However, the New Zealand Taxpayers Union said the council should welcome "more transparency" by the way of benchmarking.
"It’s essential for council performance, and under-performance, to be highlighted for ratepayers — especially in the context of how other councils are working," a spokesperson said.
The pressure group recently launched a petition in favour of rates capping but last week issued a notice claiming it had been tipped off about "a secret LGNZ memorandum" proposing a nationwide campaign to oppose rates capping.
"The minister is working through exactly what a rates capping model will look like, which already has been used successfully overseas in places like the UK and several Australian states," the spokesperson told the Oamaru Mail.
"Whichever model is implemented though — the likes of LGNZ will try throw all their resources behind a campaign to stop laws that would effectively rein in wasteful council spending."
The spokesperson said it was "clearly unbeknown to locals what LGNZ wants to achieve in the fight against ratepayers".
